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US Committed to Minimizing Civilian Casualties in Attacks on Afghanistan, Envoy Says
A senior US diplomat said Monday that "We are committed to minimizing civilian casualties and damage to civilian properties" in the current military strikes on Afghanistan, which started on Sunday.
John Negroponte, the U.S. permanent representative to the United States, made the statement after the U.N. Security Council met in a closed-door session to hear the briefing by Negroponte and his British counterpart, Jeremy Greenstock, on the military attacks, which the American ambassador described as a "self- defense action."
The military action is directed against the terrorist camps managed by Osama bin Laden and his followers and the military installation of the Taliban inside Afghanistan, he said.
"This is no way a campaign directed against the Islamic and Arab world," he said, adding that his country's anti-terrorism fight means the multifaceted and comprehensive efforts to fight international terrorism in the political, diplomatic, law enforcement and financial fields.
The United States is committed to bringing humanitarian relief to the Afghan people, he said, citing the U.S. effort to drop food and medical supplies inside Afghanistan while carrying out the military attacks.
Earlier, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in his first statement since the start of the U.S.-led military action, noted that Washington had framed the military strikes as authorized by the U.N. Charter.
But he did not offer his own view, emphasizing instead a recent Security Council resolution reaffirming U.N. members' "inherent right of individual or collective self-defense."
To defeat terrorism, "we need a sustained effort and a broad strategy that unites all nations and addresses all aspects of the scourge we face," Annan said.
The raids were launched 26 days after last month's suicide hijack attacks and targeted one of the world's least developed countries with Tomahawk cruise missiles, high altitude bombers and submarine-launched missiles.
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